To all our Friends and Supporters, wishing you a Merry Christmas and a
very happy New Year
2017 has been an amazing year with our production A Spark and a Beating Heart being a real
highlight and receiving great feedback and reviews from our audiences. It is
hard to believe that the performances were back in May!
Now we are working with producers, MAYK, to plan a tour of A Spark in autumn 2018 to venues in the
southwest.
We are also planning a workshop for schools and colleges to
run alongside performances of A Spark.
Next year will also see the beginning of a partnership
project with Bristol Old Vic, running taster workshops for new people who are
interested in making theatre and are potential future members of Firebird
Theatre.
We are also talking to the Theatre Department at Bristol University about them holding a Firebird
Theatre archive as part of their Theatre Collection.
We have been working with Cath Greig and MAYK on a research
and development project which is about looking at how Firebird can continue to
develop as a Company and have a strong future. As part of the project we have
taken part in workshops run by Verity Standen, Nik Partridge and Laura
Dannequin.
Please see below for feedback from the Company and photographs.
This year we have received support from Arts Council England
via their Grants for the Arts funding stream. They have supported us making and
performing A Spark and a Beating Heart
and the Research and Development Project.
We have also received grants from the Yapp Charitable Trust
and The Odin Charitable Trust which have contributed to our running costs and
donations from our Friends and Supporters. Many thanks to all the people who
support us in this way, also to trustees, families and friends who support
every aspect of our work, from the business side to helping us get to
rehearsals and performances.
To end this newsletter, we finish off with some comments
from audience members for A Spark and a
Beating Heart
Photo by Paul Blakemore |
This is a gorgeous
piece of theatre that implicitly argues for the existence and potential of
theatre, along with continued, active expressions of compassion for all members
of society. This work tells the story of Firebird Theatre.
Review for exeunt by Rosemary Waugh
“Loved the thread of the myths
and people’s personal stories. I liked the audio visuals that also held the
story together.
Overall it was stunning.”
“Very moved by the powerful
performance. It was extremely brave to stand and give personal performances of
things that people hoped would be forgotten. We must never forget.”
“I always leave a Firebird show
uplifted and my life enhanced. I was very moved to hear the personal
stories and loved the way they were woven with the Firebird stories. I
was very impressed with the Design.”
Feedback from Firebird for the workshops, all photographs by Ed Goater and Olivia Watkins
Workshop with Verity Standen, 16th October
The Power of Voice by Olivia Watkins
We starting of some voice exercises to help us start off. For this
workshop about voice, it was very interesting to the group, with some ideas
what we did: A food game: what is your personality as a food then the Name
Jam/sounds of music – very good experience. Then we did rounds: Deer calling
and a sea one. And we did Hocketing: singing backward and forth numbers and Hey
Jude/ Yellow Submarine. We all work very hard to complete this workshop.
She was called Verity Standen. She was leading
the workshop. We all think we like her to come again. We did some feedback of
what she did.
And now I have finished my blog. The End.
Verity Standen’s work as a composer, director and performer explores
the human voice and how it can be celebrated and transformed through live
performance.
Verity, fourth from left, with Fiirebird
|
Workshop with Nik Partridge, 6th November
Feedback from the Company
Nik was a
nice lively chap – very enthusiastic and he didn’t muck about.
His warm
ups were excellent and he was very good at explaining about what an exercise
was for and his instructions were very clear.
Some of the
exercises were difficult to understand but most of us got there in the end. We noticed
how good he was at adapting his exercises for us but also he didn’t give up –
he’d play a game with us for a while until we got the hang of it.
We loved
that he used drawing and writing – it gave us time to look and think.
He was also
very good at interpreting movement. There was a
good mix of teamwork, work in pairs and individual work – a good mix of
different exercises: voice, movement, story telling, and choreography.
The whole
workshop was upbeat and fun. It would be good to work with him again; we would
love to work with him again.
We enjoyed
it very much. Nik was a very open person.
Nik
Partridge, https://www.nikpartridgedirector.com
Nik is a
director, workshop leader and facilitator.
Workshop with Laura Dannequin, 20th November
We loved
this workshop because Laura gave us lots of ideas. We would like to work with
her again.
She helped
us all take part and I like that very much. Some of the work Laura did with us
might help us when we are on stage.
She helped
us to look at each other, to watch each other; she kept us focussed.
It was so
good that Laura let us be us, explore our own movements, our own rhythms, our
own bodies.
Laura was
very respectful of us all and she gave us a lot of confidence. Some of us feel
like we can’t dance or move very well but she helped us to see ourselves
differently – she helped us to see/experience what we could do NOT what we
couldn’t.
The dance
that Marilyn and Laura did together was beautiful.
Laura made
us feel safe to experiment. She helped us develop our ideas. She helped us to
make beautiful dances.
I loved the
different music. The music was lovely and really helped us explore our own
movements and rhythms.
The
different music suited each task/exercise. And helped us get in the mood.
Thank you,
Laura; we would love to work with you again. We will keep in touch and please
keep in touch with us. We would
love to see some of your work.
Laura Dannequin, www.lauradannequin.co.uk
Laura is a French-born performer / choreographer / performance maker working predominantly with and in movement.
Laura Dannequin, www.lauradannequin.co.uk
Laura is a French-born performer / choreographer / performance maker working predominantly with and in movement.
Working with Laura, Laura in white top and red tracksuit bottoms. |
Ending as we started: seasonal greetings to you all and we will be in touch again in 2018